sell off land at St Leonards for housing - rather than use it for much needed Hackney services - eg NHS step-down and rehabilitation services that could free up acute beds; long-term care of older people, Mental Health services

There are no plans for consultation on these proposed major changes - despite clear legal obligations for wide consultation.Hackney KONP demands full consultation engagement with the local community and involvement in any re-design of NHS services for Hackney people. ​

Does the UK spend too much on healthcare?The government tells us it's becoming too expensive to fund our healthcare. But here is an OECD comparison (using latest figures from November 2017) of how UK spending on health (per head of population, in US$) compares with some other countries.

Government proposals for the NHS: Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) which are set to 'evolve into' Integrated Care Organisations (ICOs). Government proposals will replace the publicly provided NHS with Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and Integrated Care Organisations (ICOs). 'Integrated' is simply the new (cosier-sounding) name for 'Accountable' Care Organisations (ACOs). These are US-style commercial, non-NHS bodies, which are set to run health and social services without proper public consultation and without Parliamentary scrutiny. ICOs can be given full responsibility for running NHS and social care services, and will be governed solely by company and contract law, not by parliament. No one doubts the need for improved co-ordination of health and social care. But we want to see it delivered through directly provided state services - not by for profit companies. Click here to hear what Dr Graham Winyard, former Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director, NHS England has to say about ACOs. (scroll down to below Chris Ham's presentation). In Spring of 2018, ACOs will be the subject of a legal challenge through judicial review - with Allyson Pollock, Sue Richards and Graham Winyard amongst the claimants.

The Tories want to destroy our NHS. NHS England is driving the NHS towards a privatised and insurance-based system, leaving a defunded rump NHS for those who can't pay. Since 2015, the NHS has been completely reorganised, and this has occurred completely under the radar, with no new legislation (and, arguably, illegally), no parliamentary scrutiny and no consultation with staff or local communities.

The 44 new Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) across England are required to cut NHS spending by £22 billion by 2020 compared with 2015 spending levels.

The NE London STP is called the East London Health and Care Partnership (ELHCP). It covers Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, City of London, Waltham Forest, Barking, Havering and Redbridge. The population of this area is set to grow by 18% - numbers equivalent to the City of Leicester, yet health bosses are tasked with making cuts of £850 million from a local health service which is on it's knees. The Royal London Hospital, built through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), has saddled NE London NHS with massive debts, while social care has suffered up to 25% cuts since 2010. The A&E at King George's Hospital Romford, and 200 acute beds are set to close. This will have a major impact on the local community and put further pressure on other NE London services.

ELHCP proposals for Hackney could mean: Homerton Hospital downgraded from a District General Hospital (DGH) that currently offers a full range of treatment to an Elective (ie planned) Care Centre specialising in just one type of medicine - with Hackney residents having to travel to other parts of the ELHCP area for other routine treatments. A&E is likely to be downgraded. Under current proposals, Hackney's mental health beds would be moved out of Homerton and out of Hackney to Mile End, meaning patients lose vital community contacts. ELHCP proposals could also see important NHS property and sites sold off to plug revenue gaps and used for housing rather than the NHS and social care services we need. Hackney KONP is calling for full community engagement and consultation over these plans.

Since 2017, NHS England requires STPs to move towards procuring huge 10-15yr £multi-billion commercial contracts for Integrated Care Providers (ICPs). These are single organisations combining all the health (and, often, social care) services across a Whilst we all want to see better integration of services, the Health & Social Care Act (2012) remains in place, requiring services to be put out to tender. The size and configuration of ACOs will be particularly attractive to giant healthcare corporates that run similar health organisations in the USA, so we risk wholesale takeover of the NHS by multinational corporates.

Meanwhile, following publication of the Naylor Report, NHS England has launched Project Phoenix, a joint venture with major corporations that involves the greatest firesale ever of hundreds of valuable NHS sites, and up to £5bn of private capital investment for new NHS developments - the 2017 version of the scandal that is PFI.

Many hospital trusts are transferring staff to wholly managed but private Subsidiary Companies ('SubCos') where wages, pension rights and other terms and conditions of employment can be cut.

Other initiatives including the private GP At Hand are offering a cut-down app-based GP service for patients and creating huge problems from traditional GPs by cherry-picking younger, fitter, and therefore less costly patients leaving traditional GPs managing patient with higher needs.

BUT WE AIM TO STOP THIS

Campaigners across England and locally in NE London aim to stop this. Join our campaign groups

Lobby your local councillors and MP. Demand that they oppose all cuts in services

Demand an end to the market in NHS services; reverse privatisation

No to the closure of King Georges A&E and closure of further beds at the hospital​

NHS privatisationhow much of the NHS has been privatised? What services are privatised and what are the main corporations involved in privatisation? Detailed information via the link above. Photo courtesy of Marion Macalpine

December 2017: Virgin threats net £2m settlement from NHS in SurreyWhen Virgin Care failed to win an £82m contract for children's services in Surrey, they sued the six Community Commissioning Groups (CCGs). Although the CCGs initially said they were satisfied that the procurement had been run fairly, the legal costs of fighting Virgin in court would have been immense. The settlement paid to Virgin is understood to be in excess of £2m - money desperately needed for NHS clinical services in Surrey.

North East London Sustainability & Transformation Plan (STP) (aka Slash, Trash & Privatise plan).The local NE London plan is one of 44 covering all England. It is secret, by order of NHS England. The NE London plan involves three parts:

Don't privatise Homerton Hospital's pathology labContractors building a new pathology lab at the Homerton have gone bust, leaving the Homerton with massive debts. There are huge questions to be answered about the contract with the builders - but most urgently, managers are now considering proposals to privatise the pathology services. Homerton pathology provides an excellent responsive and high quality service. Privatisation is a huge concern. Don't let them destroy our excellent local service.Sign the petition at the link.

WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR NHS?The government is tearing the NHS apart through funding cuts and privatisation, putting private profits ahead of patients. We urgently need new legislation to restore our NHS.

SPENDING ON NHSGovernment claims the NHS is 'unaffordable' and 'unsustainable'. Think-tanks funded by vested interests regularly make proposals for NHS payments - £10 for GP or A&E visits, £75 'hotel costs' for an overnight hospital stay and so on. Yet England spends far less on healthcare than France or Germany. And billions of NHS cash is wasted through costs of the NHS market, PFI schemes and private profit.

PRIVATISATION OF NHS SERVICESMore than £12bn worth of NHS contracts have been awarded to the private sector, siphoning NHS funds into private profits. The EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and CETA trade treaties will force all NHS services to be tendered. Sustainability & Transformation Plans will force a huge new wave of privatisation from 2017.

SUSTAINABILITY & TRANSFORMATION PLANS (STPs) - aka Slash Trash & Privatise plansNew STP plans will slash £millions from local budgets through cuts and closures and impose new models of care with fewer hospital beds, less doctors and professional staff, privatised services and risks to patient care and safety.

FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH NHSThese policies are wrecking the NHS. Government is on course to replace our healthcare system with US-style, hugely expensive, privatised and insurance-based healthcare. The NHS will remain, but only as a residual and greatly underfunded service of last resort, and caring for unprofitable cases. Our aim is to stop this!

We are the Hackney and City branch of the national campaign Keep Our NHS Public (KONP). We are campaigning for a publicly funded, publicly provided and publicly accountable National Health Service, both locally and nationally. We campaign against UK government measures to undermine the NHS by promoting marketisation, privatisation, and fragmentation and against cuts and reductions in NHS services. We aim to highlight and oppose the impact of these UK government policies on our local NHS services. More info.